Shoe-press attachment



May 20 1924. 1,494,706 H. R. POLLEYS SHOE PRESS ATTACHMENT Filed April30, 192] I5 Sheets-Sheet l $513 ,hlm Cinto/mau.

May 20 1924- H. R. POLLEYS SHOE PRESS ATTACHMENT Filed April 3o, 5sheets-sheet 2 3 mmm/to@ )wm/fram 1E. Pouw@ H. R. POLLEYS SHOE PRESSATTACHMENT May 20 1924.

Filed April .30, 192] 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 3 nvewto Moeu 322962496 Patent fray ao, aaa

L. CANDEE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

SHOE-PRESS ATTACHMENT.

Application led April 30, 1921. SeriaL No. 465,804.

To all lwhom t may concern.

Be it known that I, HERBERT R. PoLLEYs, a citizen of the United States,residing at New Haven, in the county of New Haven and lState ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inShoe-Press Attachments, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description.

This invention relates to a shoe press attachment, more particularly toa device for supporting a last during the pressing` and rolling of theoutsoles of vulcanizable footwear and also the uppers thereof.

For many years the usual method of making vulcanizable footwear articleshas been to build them up piece by piece on a last and to compact thevarious layers by hand rolling. drical in form the curves of the lastcannot be readily followed and portions of the article may not beproperly compacted, re-

sulting in blisters in the finished product and in the separation of theparts at points where subjected to iexing and strain in use. In recentyears a number of machines have been introduced for laying on theoutsole by rolling or pressing and in certain of these provision is madefor at the same time pressing the upper at all points to thoroughlycompact its component parts.y A common type of machine. comprises twoflexible diaphragms between which the footwear article is introduced,the diaphragms being then caused by fluid pressure to envelop and pressthe outsole and upper. These machines vary in detail, some operating ononly one articleat a time and others on a plurality.

It has been discovered, however, that the preliminary hand-rolling giventhe uppers when making them is in most cases suiiicient for allpractical purposes, except at the crown of the vamp portion` at whichpoint the article is flexed in walking. At this point it is thereforedesirable to insure the adhesion of the various layers by vmechanicalpressure.

As far as I am aware',` in the double diaphragm machines as previouslyconstructed, the means for supporting the last was not adjustable or wasnot provided with a suicient number of adjustments to As the roller usedis cylin.

allow different sizes and styles of lasts to be properly `positionedduring .the solepressing operation. This lack of adjusting means isparticularly felt where it is desired to incline a shoe to better rollover the edges of either the heel or toe portion of the sole.

By my invention a resilient means such as a Huid actuated diaphragm isused to press the sole onto the upper, while the diaphragm or otherdevice formerlyy used to press the entire upper of the shoe may beomitted, and means are provided instead for pressing the shoe at thecrown of the vamp portion only. In order to allow the shoe to bevariously inclined to alter the pressing effect at the heel and toeportions of the sole, and to insure the proper engagement of the vamppressing means, an improved means for supporting the last is provided.If it be desired to press the entire shoe upper, instead of the vampcrown only, the last supporting and vamp pressing means may be used inconnection with any suitable upper pressing device.

An object of my invention is to provide an improved attachment for solepresses.

Another object is to provide means for pressing the portions of the shoeupper which are subjected to the greatest flexing 1n wear.

Still another object is to `provide anim-h proved means for supportingdiffe-rent lasts and for readily varying the height and angle of supportof the last.

A further object isI to provide an improved means for rolling over thesole edges into contact with the upper.

A. still further object is to provide a vamp pressin means which isreadily adjustable for various sizes and styles of footwear.

For a detailed disclosure of the invention reference is' had to theaccompanying specification and drawing, in which latter;

Fig. l is a transverse section partly broken away through a shoe pressshowing my invention and taken on the line 1 1 of FigJQ;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section on the line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view with the cover or top removed;

F ig. 4 is a. plan view of the vamp-pressing block; I

Fig. is a side elevation thereof partly in section;

Fig, 6 is an end elevation of the block;

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a slight modi'- fication of my invention.

Fig. 8 is a. plan vlew of a modified form of the block; and

Fig.9 is an end elevation thereof. Referring to the drawings the numeral1 represents the frame of a sole pressing machme which can be of anordinary form 2 a cover 3 is 'disposed which is hingedly.

mounted on the frame of the machine b v the hollow hinge pin 4, andsecured to the cover 3 and forming a chamber therewith is a flexiblediaphragm Fluid under pressure may be introduced into said chamber bymeans of the bore 6 connecting with the hollow hinge pin 4 leading to asource of supply in the manner shown in patent to Stuartbeforementioned,` and the cover may beactuated and locked i-n positionas shown in the Stuart patent. Any other suitable means for supplyingfluid under pressure to the chamber and actuating and locking the covermay besubstituted. Attached to the` lower wall of cavity 2 is a bearingmember 7 in which is longitudinally slidable a rotatable shaft 8 havinga hand wheel 9 at one end thereof. A series of annular grooves 10 areformed in the shaft, with which is adapted to coact a spring-presseddetent 11 in order to hold the shaft in adjusted position. linned orotherwise secured to the shaft is a gear 12 meshing with a gear 13rotatabl)7 secured in a bearing block 14, and threadedly secured withinthe gear 13 is a snppoit or rod 15, the lower end of which is forked asshown at 16, which forked end straddles Athe reduced portion 17 of shaft8 in order to prevent rotation of the rod when gearr13 is actuated.lastsnpporting bloc-k 18 is provided With a recess 19 which loosely fitsover the upper end of rod 15, and the block 18 is pivotally connected torod 15 b v the pivot pin 20. A spring-pressed pin 21, disposed in arecess in rod l5, presses against, the block 18 and normally tends totilt upwardly the toe end of a last supported on the block. The shoelasts are ordinarily provided with sockets for the reception ofsupporting pins, which sockets vary in spacingl and diameter accordingto the size of the lasts. By providing the block 18 with a plurality ofspaced threaded sockets 22 of the same diameter, the correspondinglythreaded last-supporting pins 23. of an desired diameter beyond theirthreaded en s, may be variably spaced Asupporting mechanism, and

memos accordin to the size last used. A second gear 24 1s slidablymounted on shaft 8 by means of the spline 25, and a spring 26intei-posed between the gear and the bearing member 7 normally urges thegear into mesh with a gear 27 rotatably mounted -in a block 28. Asupport, orA rod 29 passes through gear 2T and has a threaded oonnectiontherewith, said rod being prevented from turning on actuation of thegear by means of the screw 30 threaded into the block 28 and slidablyengaging a groove 31 in the rod 29. At its upper end the rod 29 isprovide-d with a iattened and roughened circular shaped portion 32 onthe opposite sides of which the similarly roughened forked ends 33 ofthe bracket34 are adapted to be clamped by means of the bolt 35 andthumb nut 35. base or block 36 is slidably mounted on the bracket 34 bya dovetail connection 36'. and resting on the block 36 is a toe-block 37of rubber or other resilient material, which latter is curved to fit thegeneral shape of the vamp portion of a last and held in place by a cover38 of rubber or rubber-coated fabric, -the lower ends4 of the coverbeing` secured to the block 36 at the sides by 'means of the clampingplates 39 and 39 and the screws 40. In order to secure the toe-block inadjusted position a set screw 41 is threaded into the lower por# tion ofthe clamping plate 39 and is adapted to engage a. `series of recesses 42in the side of bracket 34.

rlhe form shown in Figs. 7 to l9 is similar in all respects to that justdescribed, except that the last-supporting devices are mounted as a unitin a frame or base 43. By using this form some of the formertwo-diaphragm type machines may be changed over into the singlediaphragm type b v merely removing the lower diaphragm for pressing theupper, together with its last substituting therefor the last-supportingdevices shown in Fig. 7. In others the form shown in Figs. 1 and- 2, ora modification thereof, may be used. ln the modified form shown in Eigs.7 to 9 the means for holding the toe-block in adjusted position is alsomodified, the base or block 36 carrying the toeblock being provided witha series of Arecesses 44 in the wall of its dove-tail groove, while thebracket 34 is provided with a spring-pressed detent 45 adapted to engageany of the recesses 44 and yieldingly hold .the toe-block in adjustedposition.

In operation alast 46 having a shoe upper 47 assembled thereon ismountedv :on the block 18 by means of the pins 23 on the block engagingthe recesses 23 in the last. The toe-block may be slid longitudinally ofthe shoe last on account of the dove-tail connection of its base 36 withthe bracket 34, and the bracket 34 may be angularly adjusted byloosening the thumb nut until the toe-block 37 is in proper position toengage the crown lof the vamp portion of the upper, as shown in Fig. 2.By means of the hand wheel 9 the supports or rods 15 and 29 may besimultaneously raised to thereby lift the last to the same extent at.both its heel and toe portions,'or by pulling out the hand wheel 9 torelease the gear 12 from mesh, the rod 29 alone may be elevated tothereby raise the toe portion only of the shoe, or finally by rstsimultaneously raising the rods 15 and 29 and then drawing out the handwheel 9 to release gear 12 the rod 29 may be actuated so as to lower thetoe portion of the shoe relatively to the heel portion. 'hen the lastand accompanying upper with its laid outsole, and the toe block havebeen adjusted to the position desired, the. cover 3 is lowered, andfluid under pressure admitted to the chamber in rear of the fiexiblediaphragm 5 to thereby' cause the diaphragm to press down and roll overthe edges of the outsole on the upper. At the same time the resilienttoe-block, 37, against which the toe ortion of the last and upper are'pressed y the diaphragm 5, .causes the crown of the vamp portion of theupper to be thoroughly compacted and the various plies thereof firmlyunited. By inclining upwardly the heel or toe portion of the last thediaphragm 5 may be caused to bear more effectively and directly upon thecorrespondingly elevated portions to thereby more secure y andcompletely roll over and unite the 'sole and its edges to the upper. Itwill beseen that by means of the angular adjustment of the bracket 34-onthe bolt 35 and by the'longitudinal sliding movement of the toe block onthe bracket 34 the toe block may be readily adjusted to conform tovarious shapes and sizes of lasts. The position of the last may alsobe---varied longitudinally with respect to the toe block by mountingitssupporting pins 23 in different sockets 22 on the block 18.

IVhile the invention has been shown as applied to a shoe-pressingmachine and is particularly adapted for this purpose, 1t is evident thatthe last-supporting and elevating mechanism may e used independently forthe purpose of supporting a shoe last during the operation of buildingup a shoe upper thereon, or for other purposes.

by the other support for engaging and pressing the shoe at its vamp.

2. In combination, ya pair of supports, means for adjustingsaid supportsaxially, means for pivotally mounting a last and accompanying footweararticle on one support, means carried bythe other support for engagingthe vamp portion of the article, and means whereby said last means maybe adjusted either angularly or laterally with respect to its support.

3. In combination, means for support-in a last at the heel and'toeportions, and unitary means for 'adjusting said supporting means inunison or relatively.

4.' In combination, a'shaft, a pair of gears mounted thereon, a secondpair of gears operable by said first mentioned gears, supportsthreadedly connected to said second pair of gears, means for preventingrotation of said supports, means forl pivotally mounting a last on oneof said fsupports, a toe block mounted on the other support, and meansfor angularly or laterally `adjusting said block on its support.

5. In combination, a pair of gears, means for at will actuating one orboth gears including a second pair of gears, a pair of supportsthreadedly connected to said first.

. pair, means forpreventing rotation of said supports, and lastsupporting means carried by said supports and adjustable for'differentsize lasts.

Signed at New Haven, county' of New Haven, and State of Connecticut,this 22d day of April, 1921.

a HERBERT R. 1. oLLEYs.

